In Pictures: Laois village unveils commemorative sign for local mass paths

A new sign has been erected in Clough to record the old mass paths throughout the village.

Located on the grounds of St. Canice’s Church, the sign features written accounts from seven local people. 

These accounts were recorded in the hopes of preserving the locations and history of Clough’s mass paths for future generations, and to educate visitors on the rich history within the village. 

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The idea was originally formed by Siobhán Maher, and has come to fruition with the help of the community.

“The project was kicked off after we finished a different sign about the history of Clough,” said Ms Maher.

“We were going through an old map a few months ago and were looking at the mass paths routes. We held a mass path walk last May, and had a great turn out, around 60 people took part,” she said.

“As we were walking, they were all telling their own stories of the mass paths, so we thought it would be lovely to capture their stories. Years ago, most people walked these paths either to mass or to school. 

“There were three mass paths with locals taking around six or seven different routes, so one Saturday morning a group of us sat down in Mary Bowe’s kitchen and mapped out each route,” Ms Maher explained.

“There was a combined age of 556 in the kitchen, they were all aged 86 up to 90. Each route we mapped had different stories- some were of their own experiences from walking these routes, some were stories they had been told by their grandparents and so on,” she said.

“I approached each of the contributors and they hand-wrote their memories. We colour coordinated each route by the stories. We sectioned them down, we had to cut down a lot,” Ms Maher said.

The project took over a year, and though it was difficult, the group are delighted with the results.

“Clough is so rich in history and all of this history will be gone, all of the memories of the village and the people. So we recorded a lot of locals as well, and we have another project in the church graveyard where we have signs on who is buried where,” Ms Maher said.

“We're hoping to do a book, we have a lot of work to do. We had fantastic help from Laois historian Sean Murray, he helped us with Mass Path routes.”

The community in Clough continue to band together to further invigorate the town, and are currently working on a massive bottle cap mural. 

“We are hoping to have a bottle cap mural on display in the village soon,” Ms Maher said.

“Victoria Dobbyn is going to sketch the church and the notable landmarks around the village.  We have sourced at least 30,000 bottle caps so far, it’s a big project and so many are collecting and counting bottle caps!” Ms Maher finished.

Laois County Councillor John King unveiled the new mass path sign, and congratulated the Clough community on their hard work.

“I’m happy to be here in Clough today, it’s very important to acknowledge the people of yesteryear who came to school along these paths,” said Cllr King.

“There were no buses in those days, and from speaking with one of the older men here today, the walk to school took him an hour in the morning and an hour home each evening. It’s great to acknowledge their stories and the history here in Clough,” Cllr King finished.